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GE has sold about a 4% stake in Genpact, India’s largest business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, for about $100 million in a private transaction. Following the sale, GE’s stake in the NYSE-listed BPO firm has come down to 18.8% from about 23% earlier. Private equity players General Atlantic and Oak Hill Capital Partners have a combined stake of 52% in Genpact. GE has sold 8 million shares at a price of $12.5 per share. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Saturday, Genpact said, “GE has agreed to sell, in a private transaction, approximately $100 million of Genpact common shares to an affiliate of a limited partner in one of Genpact’s other shareholders.” Subject to the lock-up agreement that GE entered into with the underwriters of Genpact’s IPO, the 8 million shares would not enter the public trading market as a result of the transaction, it added. “Genpact is a good partner and continues to provide valuable support to our operations. This transaction is simply a part of our normal and on-going portfolio management activities and we look forward to a long and productive relationship,” a GE spokesperson said. […]
The rally on the Indian bourses is stoking strong interest among private equity (PE) funds in brokerages and financial services firms. Domestic brokerages, a majority of whom have been traditionally family-owned ventures, are also showing willingness to infuse PE funding to spread their reach. This is primarily to counter increasing competition from new foreign entrants and also to leverage the global stock market expertise brought in by PE biggies. Among the latest in a string of deals, ICICI Venture Funds Management and Baring Private Equity Asia are slated to invest $44 million in Hyderabad-based Karvy Stock Broking Ltd. US-based PE fund Balyasny Asset Management marked its first exposure to the Indian financial services space by investing $10 million in Prabhudas Lilladher Advisory Services — the holding company of brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher — for a three per cent stake. […]
Offshore services provider Jindal Drilling & Industries Ltd will raise Rs 1.54 billion after its board on Friday approved issuing 1.2 million shares to Citigroup at Rs 1,280 each for a 10.5 per cent stake. The funds will be used for capex and business plans, the company said in a statement. Jindal's board also approved acquiring 49 per cent in Singapore-based Virtue Drilling Pte Ltd. ( Economic Times) […]
UTV Software Communications Ltd. said on Friday that its British subsidiary UTV Communications (UK) Ltd. has acquired a controlling stake, constituting 62.42% of the issued share capital of Indiagames from Tom Online Games Ltd. Simultaneously, the company has also acquired a 12.11% equity stake in Indiagames by subscribing to the latter's share capital. In addition, UTV UK has an obligation to subscribe to additional shares amounting to 8% of the equity share capital of Indiagames for US$1.5mn. With this, UTV Software, along with its UK subsidiary hold about 66.97% of the existing capital of Indiagames. The total investment after the additional subscription will be about Rs424mn in Indiagames. […]
Leading financial services groups ICICI, IL&FS and Kotak have bought a combined 9.55% stake in Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), India’s largest commodity derivatives exchange. The transactions put the valuation of MCX at over $1 billion. ICICI Venture has picked up 3.55% stake, while IL&FS and Kotak bought 5% and 1% respectively. This brings down promoter Financial Technologies's (FT) holding in MCX to 37.5%. The compelling valuation story in exchanges — as earlier reflected in institutional interest in leading bourses like NSE and BSE — has been the driver behind these investments. “We are currently not looking at any further dilution of stake. The equity from the current stake sale will be deployed in improving the exchange infrastructure,” said MCX MD and CEO Jignesh Shah. Earlier during the year, FT had sold 5% stake each to Citi and Merrill Lynch at similar valuations. The comex, it may be mentioned, has already expressed its intention to go for an IPO. […]
New Delhi-based realty funding company Red Fort Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd will float a Rs 800 crore fund to finance real estate development projects in India. “The corpus will be mobilised from high net-worth individuals and corporates within India,” Parry Singh, director of the company, told the media here. According to him, the money will be raised by the end of this month and investments out of it will be made from March. Meanwhile, the company has invested around $300 million out of its $400-million fund called Red Fort India Real Estate Fund I, which raised money through foreign direct investments. The company has invested in three projects in Bangalore and in a township project in Hyderabad.The company has also bought 10 acres in Chennai for an undisclosed sum. While the company has decided to build residential apartments here for the middle-income group, it is yet to zero in on a developer. It plans to invest around $100 million in the Chennai market. […]
When steel-pipe maker Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren (WGSR) won the contract for the world’s deepest gas pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico from El Paso, not only did it earn accolades from National Geographic, but it also had Europe’s largest private equity firm 3i Investments sit up and take notice. Says Anil Ahuja, managing director and co-head, Asia, 3i Investments: “WGSR is among the top few global suppliers of line pipes in the oil and gas sector. It’s a space we liked but could not get an unlisted player to invest in, so we picked up a 6.6 per cent stake in WGSR for $80 million (Rs 320 crore) from the secondary market.” Mergers and acquisitions are passé, the new buzz on Dalal Street is PIPE—private investment in public equity—as private equity players make the 8,000-strong listed companies their new target. While the foreign institutional investors have been busy chasing the bluechips, the private equity players have been quietly hunting on Indian bourses for small and mid-cap companies. And the sectors seeing maximum PIPE deals are cement, construction, oil and gas and infrastructure. As a trend, PIPE is no more than five years old, even in the global markets. From $20 billion (Rs 80,000 crore) in 2000, global PIPE deals have risen to $45 billion (Rs 1.8 lakh crore) in 2007. Till October, $1.71 (Rs 6,840 crore) billion had been invested in 16 PIPE deals in India against $1.25 billion (Rs 5,000 crore) across 36 deals in 2006. […]
The Centre for Executive Education (CEE) at the Indian School of Business (ISB) is conducting an advanced level special programme on private equity. This programme is being offered in association with Times Private Treaties, the strategic investment arm of the media conglomerate The Times Group. The programme has been designed for banking, finance and insurance professionals who aspire for a career in private equity, lawyers, chartered accountants and CPAs working with private equity companies. Being conducted at ISB in February 2008, the programme will be led by two internationally-renowned experts Thomas Frederik Hellmann, associate professor at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, and Marco Da Rin, assistant professor at Turin University. Deepak Chandra, associate dean for executive education at ISB says: “The Indian private equity market is unique in many ways and is fast attracting the attention of many global players. To fuel this growth, companies need to invest in professionals who have an in depth expertise of best practices and the knowhow to make them work for India. CEE at the ISB has designed this programme to bring Indian professionals up to speed on global standards.” Adds Sunil Rajshekhar, director, Times Private Treaties: “We at the Times Group believe that the private equity market is growing exponentially with a demand for global expertise. The ISB’s edge in delivering world-class education and its globally-renowned faculty will ensure a truly global-local learning for participants in this special programme.” […]
Sequoia Capital and a Singapore-based private equity fund are learnt to be in the race to invest upwards of Rs 100 crore in Mysore-based e-learning firm Excelsoft. Excelsoft is a six-year-old firm which provides a range of customised learner-centric learning systems, test and assessment systems, and desktop tools. According to industry information, the company, which has a topline of around Rs 50 crore is expected to be valued in the range of Rs 350-400 crore for the stake sale. A deal is expected to be sealed by early-January 2008. Industry sources further indicate that in addition to Sequoia and the Singapore fund, ICICI Venture is also in the fray to invest in this high-margin firm. Estimates are that Excelsoft has a net profit of close to Rs 25 crore due to its business model of taking the product licensing route on which services and consulting add value and stickiness. […]
Riverbank Holdings Pvt Limited, a joint venture between Bata India Limited and Calcutta Metropolitan Group Limited has finalised a 50 per cent equity participation by Yatra Capital Limited for its IT SEZ project to come up at Batanagar. Yatra Capital which is the first India focussed investment company and the first Jersey incorporated company to list on Euronext, Amsterdam, has picked up 50 per cent equity in the project for Rs 117.6 crore. The investment by Yatra has been done by a special purpose company, K2A Commercial. The IT SEZ is a part of the Calcutta Riverside project which also includes an integrated township spread over an area of 262 acres on the banks of Hooghly river. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sumit Dabriwala, managing director of RHPL said, the first phase of IT special economic zone will be completed by early 2010 and the entire project including the township is expected to be over by the last quarter of 2012. […]
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